84 Trial Monitoring: A Reference Manual for Practitioners community actors are often donors to projects and may play a political role in promoting reform. Therefore, they have a vested interest in gaining information about the justice system. To achieve this, they rely on monitoring programmes’ findings, and also have additional sources of information in which a monitoring programme might be interested. Communication between a field operation and such interlocutors is usually established at higher levels. However, it is important to maintain contacts at working levels as well, taking into account that most embassies have focal points for justice-sector matters. 9.3.8 Dealing with confidential or sensitive information in the context of interviews During their information-gathering activities, monitors will inevitably come across sensitive or confidential information. Programme guidelines and practical advice will need to cover clearly and comprehensively how managers expect this information to be treated.125 It should be borne in mind that, although all staff within an organization may be bound by confidentiality clauses, it is a matter of professional conduct not to share confidential or sensitive information beyond the persons who need to know, even internally. Interviewers will need to make clear whether any documents or notes that they include in programme files contain privileged information, so as to alert other users to handle the information with special care. Additionally, a skill that interviewers will need to develop is the ability to understand what types of information they can share with interviewees in a meeting. Monitoring personnel may choose to be general or more specific in the examples they bring up, but should refrain from referring to confidential data, especially since this could lead to criminal or disciplinary liability. Depending on the circumstances, certain sensitive information may, nevertheless, be acknowledged in meetings. On these occasions, it is highly recommended that monitors and legal analysts consult in advance with supervisors about what data they may share with other interlocutors in oral discussions and, in case of doubt, opt for the safest approach. 9.4 Information gathering on the basis of questionnaires or surveys Some monitoring programmes have relied on the use of questionnaires as a means to obtain information from stakeholders on matters of interest.126 Questionnaires can be used to supplement direct interviews and other information-gathering methods. In certain circumstances, questionnaires filled out by justice actors may be good alternatives to personal interviews. This is particularly true when direct access to stakeholders is not available or when a programme seeks to obtain information on numerous issues from multiple interlocutors in a relatively short space of time. Depending on the specific circumstances, interlocutors may also feel more confident providing information, opinions and criticism in writing, especially if anonymity is preserved. Questionnaires have advantages and disadvantages as compared to interviews. ÀÀ The potential advantages of using questionnaires include: • They can be administered relatively quickly and easily; • They can cover multiple topics that would otherwise require extensive meetings; • They can be issued to individuals who may be otherwise difficult to access, e.g., those who serve in a remote court or are involved in cases not regularly monitored; and • The responses may be more easily compared and processed than information provided in the context of a discussion. 125 See Chapter 5.4 and Chapter 8.1.4 also on dealing with confidential information. 126  An example of a comprehensive report with information obtained mainly through questionnaires is the “Analysis of the Criminal Justice System of Albania” (2006), by the OSCE Presence in Albania.